First Airbus A321LR In East Asia Enters Service With Air Busan In South Korea

Great leaps start with short hops. East Asia’s first Airbus A321LR is with South Korea’s Air Busan, which ultimately plans to use the aircraft to open new long flights like a 6.5-hour service to Bali Denpasar or nine hour flight to Delhi.  

For now, Air Busan’s A321LR is flying domestically, shuttling between Seoul and Busan, 40 minutes apart.

Extended-range narrowbody aircraft are attractive to Asian low-cost carriers like Air Busan. The range allows them to serve cities they could not fly to with older aircraft. That opens new markets and takes pressure off short-haul market concentration.

Jetstar Japan and Peach Aviation also plan to operate the A321LR. AirAsia, Cebu Pacific, and VietJet will fly the even longer range A321XLR, launched at last year’s Paris Air Show.

The A321XLR has global commitments including from American Airlines
AAL
, Iberia, JetBlue, Middle East Airlines (MEA), and United Airlines
UAL

Korea’s vibrant LCC sector has found in recent years that range limitations and traffic right restrictions were curtailing sustainable growth.

While widebody aircraft enable flights to further-flung destinations, they bring high risk by introducing a new aircraft type and having more capacity that needs to be filled year-round.

In addition to Air Busan’s current A321LR, HL8366, it plans to take one more of the type. Air Busan has the below video of the first A321LR’s assembly, which was delivered in March and commenced serviced in April. Air Busan is owned by Asiana Airlines.

Air Busan’s A321LR cabin interior is finding balance between Air Busan’s low-cost origins and comfort needed on long flights.

While there is no in-flight entertainment, passengers can keep their own devices charged during the flight. Every three seats share two power plugs, each of which has AC and USB power. (See video at the top.)

The A321LR can seat up to 244, but Air Busan’s configuration has 220 all-economy seats. Jetstar Japan plans a denser A321LR configuration with 232 seats. Air Busan’s non-LR A321s have 191-220 seats.

Standard seats have a 30” pitch and are not the extremely slim ones seen on some short-haul flights. But there is no adjustable headrest.

While Air Busan is the first A321LR operator in East Asia, the first A321LR in all of Asia went to Air Astana in West Asia’s Kazakhstan.

Fellow South Korean LCC Eastar Jet has 737-900ERs but has not fully utilized the additional range over the 737 NG/A320ceo family. Jeju Air has 737 MAX 8 aircraft, but the range is not as long as on the A321LR.

Jin Air is the only South Korean LCC to have widebodies. Its 777-200s flew at various times to destinations including Cairns, Honolulu and Phuket.